British Columbians recently
saved 136 megawatt
hours of electricity and reduced
the provincial electricity
load by 1.95 percent
during Earth Hour – the
equivalent of turning off
more than 10 million 12.5-
watt LED light bulbs.

Many communities
across the province successfully
improved their
Earth Hour energy savings
from the previous year.
Comox and Courtenay saw
the highest reduction at
nearly 10 percent.

Earth Hour is an annual
global event hosted by the
World Wildlife Fund and
supported by BC Hydro.
This year marks the sixth
year of BC Hydro’s support
of the event. The goal of
Earth Hour is to encourage
individuals to turn off unnecessary
lights and electronics
in an effort to conserve
power and, in doing
so, demonstrate support
for climate change reduction
efforts.

This year, many BC
Hydro account holders
were able to track their
electricity use by logging
onto MyHydro – their online
account – at www.
bchydro.com/myhydro.
They were able to see the
hourly breakdown for their
account and compare Earth
Hour electricity use with
their use on the Saturday
prior to Earth Hour.

Power Smart tips help
British Columbians make
a difference in energy conservation
through simple
efforts year-round. Since
2007, BC Hydro’s Power
Smart programs have
saved close to 4,300 gigawatt
hours per year of electricity
– enough to power
390,000 B.C. homes.

Facts:
• The top five B.C. communities
for this year’s
Earth Hour were: Comox,
Courtenay, North
Saanich, Sidney and
Qualicum.
• Vancouver’s electricity
load dropped by 2.4 per
cent during Earth Hour
2013.
• In 2012, British Columbians
saved 121 megawatt
hours of electricity and
reduced the provincial
electricity load by 1.67
per cent during Earth
Hour – the equivalent of
turning off about 9 million
12.5-watt LED light
bulbs.
• The total provincial energy
savings from Earth
Hour participation since
2008 is 500.27 megawatt
hours of electricity – the
equivalent of turning off
40 million 12.5-watt LED
light bulbs.
• The province-wide energy
savings reported since
BC Hydro began supporting
Earth Hour are
as follows: 121 megawatt hours in 2012; 117 megawatt
hours in 2011; 64.6
megawatt hours in 2010;
72.67 megawatt hours in
2009; and 125 megawatt
hours in 2008.
• New electricity use tracking
tools are available
online through MyHydro
thanks to BC Hydro’s
new smart meters and
smart grid. About 1.1
million BC Hydro customers
now have access
to this energy use information.
As the remaining
smart meters and
components of the smart
grid are deployed across
B.C., more customers
will be able to track their
own Earth Hour results
in the future.